Twain, Trump, And Tasting Thailand
If you’re like me, you too have something in common with our president. While I’m not much of a golfer, and I somehow doubt that President Trump has even heard of Isaac Asimov, we share an experience that I hold very dear and I hope he does as well. We’ve both spent time experiencing Southeast Asia. About 10 years ago, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to spend some time halfway around the world and it was an adventure that in many ways, I’m still feeling the impact of.
The Philosophy and History departments at Millikin University decided to team up for a semester long study abroad in Thailand with side trips to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Since those two departments were the disciplines that I had chosen, (and after running the numbers it was actually going to be cheaper than staying in the States,) I decided this was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I took courses on the history and culture of the area and even earned college credit for a yoga class I took on the second floor of the library. It was a wild experience.
I’d never had the opportunity to leave the country before and so when we touched down, my eyes were as wide as they had ever been. I tried to reign in my excitement and remember that the entire point of the trip was an academic one. The point was to learn. On a daily basis I’d repeat one of my favorite quotes, often attributed to Mark Twain, “never let your schooling interfere with your education.” I was there to earn class credit, of course, but there were uncountable things to learn outside of the second floor of the library and I only had a semester to experience as many as I could.
Even though I didn’t speak the language, I could experience the life around me. I made a point of looking for markets off the main roads, going into shops with no English markings, and especially eating dishes that I had never heard of before. I learned more from watching people as I ate on some random street corner than I ever could hope to have gained from a textbook. The smells and colors and family interactions all present in a simple moment of observation are still at the core of my memories of the area.
I can’t imagine that my friend on the trip, Greg, has the same memories. Greg ate at the most American places he could find every day and most of them had big illuminated signs that were all too familiar to a western skyline. I liked Greg, he was a good guy, but the entire trip I couldn’t help but think his experience was missing something. He was missing out on an invaluable growth opportunity.
One of my other favorite Twain quotes is, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
For my money, and I’d warrant Twain’s as well, the point of travel is to try new things, to allow yourself to be impacted by the way another sphere of life articulates itself. If you’re not willing to engage with the land or people around you assuming they have nothing to offer, you might as well stay at home. If you can’t even eat the food of a different country, how can you learn from the experience?
